Only charitably could Wednesday's deal to reopen the government and avert a devastating default be called kicking the can down the road. It's more like tapping the can gently to see whether it moves.

The deal reopens the government just until Jan. 15 and allows the Treasury to borrow only until Feb. 7. What's more, the call for House-Senate budget talks to settle differences on intractable fiscal issues before the new deadlines arrive is discouragingly familiar.

None of several previous efforts worked, so optimism is scarce this time around.

But history suggests that maybe, just maybe, the end of a crisis like this one could be the beginning of better things. A GOP with a deeply tarnished brand could decide that change is needed. A Democratic president seeking accomplishments beyond his first two years in office could redouble his efforts to find common ground.

Far-fetched in these hyperpartisan times? Probably. But today's situation bears eerie similarities to early 1996, when the last government shutdown prompted a tectonic shift in Washington politics.

According to an ABC News/Washington Post poll, 74% of Americans disapproved of Republicans' handling of the crisis then, and 74% feel the same way now. Half disapproved of President Clinton's actions then; 53% feel the same way about President Obama now.

Those low approval numbers changed attitudes. Republicans realized that they couldn't go into an election year as the party of brinksmanship and government shutdowns. And Clinton shifted to a more pragmatic style that he called "triangulation."

The two sides started looking for areas of agreement, and quickly found them. A sweeping telecommunications reform bill — bottled up for years and pronounced "dead as Elvis" by one key player — suddenly became law. Congress then passed, and Clinton signed, a hike in the minimum wage, a major welfare reform measure, and a law allowing people to take health plans with them when they leave their jobs.

Yes, today's GOP is far less inclined to compromise. Yet all but the most intransigent Tea Party Republicans recognize that the doomed effort to defund Obamacare was, in the words of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a "shameful chapter." Republicans might be cautious about acting for fear of attracting far-right opponents in party primaries. Even so, as the 16-day shutdown lurches to its entirely predictable conclusion, they know that the best interests of the Republican Party are in getting out of the place they're occupying.

Obama and Senate Democrats, meanwhile, need to avoid the temptation to gloat and demand further capitulation. The two sides are staring at three areas — a "grand bargain" on deficit reduction, immigration reform and tax simplification — where majorities for major legislation could be built.

Though ideological rigidity still stands in the way, there is a chance that progress could be made — particularly if polls show voters growing even more disgusted with continued gridlock, manufactured crises and self-inflicted economic wounds.

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